BOOK REVIEW: Grimm – Aunt Marie’s Book of Lore

“As his Aunt Marie is dying, homicide Detective Nick Burkhardt discovers he is descended from an elite line of criminal profilers known as “Grimms”, who keep the balance between humanity and mythological creatures. As well as inheriting the “gift” from his aunt of being able to see the creatures’ true forms, he also inherits useful artefacts, including the Book of Lore.“

If you like the show Grimm, as much as I do, and fancy getting an associated book that really stands up to repeated reading, then you’re looking for Aunt Marie’s Book of Lore. In essence, this is the closest you’ll get to the tome that Nick constantly refers to during his first two seasons to date. I would call it the ideal coffee-table book, but if you have children in the vicinity, some of the artwork might mentally scar them for life.

So, if you know your Grimm well, then this book carefully documents all aspects of the lore: every creature race encountered has a section: Blutbads, Daemonfeuer, Lausenschlange, etc complete with hand-written historical notes about the first encounters with these creatures but Nick’s Grimm ancestry, often in German, with an annotated translation underneath, accompanied by some fantastic artwork – sketches of the creatures, often from various angles and anatomical too, along with diagrams that extrapolate the tales of first encounters. As I said earlier, this book really stands up to repeat browsing, as every time you pick it up you spot another hand-written footnote you missed the last time. What I particularly like, is the painstaking attention to detail: in order to give this book that authentic feel, every page has wear-marks: faux folds or tears, bloody fingerprints, potion stains and pictures and objects “taped” to the pages… really quite clever.

In summary, if you are a great fan of the TV show, particularly the lore behind each creature family, and quite fancy a really unusual book to show people, then I strongly recommend Aunt Marie’s Book of Lore!